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In recent months, there has been a major crackdown on these third-party apps by copyright owners, as a result users are flooding Kodi's online forums and social media, complaining that their "Kodi boxes" are no longer working.

Kodi itself does not manufacture TV set-top boxes, but many unscrupulous retailers sell Android TV boxes pre-installed with the Kodi media player and a selection of illicit add-ons.

The XBMC Foundation, which oversees the Kodi software, appears to be utterly fed up with the situation, stating that it is not interested in hearing users' complaints, and labelling those who sell these fully-loaded Kodi boxes as "criminals".

"If you post in our forums or social channels about a pirate add-on or streaming service not working please expect ZERO sympathy or support," it said in a blog post described by the Mirror.

"We don't care. We care less than not caring. We don't care biggly.

"And to counter a popular comment; if the Kodi userbase drops a huge percentage because pirate services flee or die, we're fine with that. Kodi has been around since 2002 and we are not going to implode or disappear (unlike the pirates).

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"Life will be a little quieter, but less time spent on self-entitled whiny people means more time writing great code and having fun. We're okay with that too."

The news comes after an investigation by the UK's Intellectual Property Office revealed that 15% of UK internet users - approximately 7 million people - stream or download material that infringes copyright.